332/365: National French Toast Day

There are many things to be thankful for today; among them, a sweetened breakfast dish made with bread and beaten eggs. November 28 is National French Toast Day!

It’s also Thanksgiving, of course. We’d like to wish a happy holiday to all our readers and their families!

Thanksgiving is probably the most filling day of the year, with so much food served most people feel like they are going to burst at the seams if they take one more bite. We certainly don’t need to celebrate food on this foodiest of food days, but at least it’s a breakfast dish that will take the bite off our hunger while waiting for turkey and all the trimmings later in the day.

First, let’s dispel any myths about the name. French toast was not invented in France. The earliest recipe appears in Apicius, a Roman cookbook dating to the 4th century. It mentions soaking bread in milk (but not egg) and calls the dish aliter dulcia which flows off the tongue nicely, but simply means “another sweet dish.” Hardly an inspiring name. It was first called “French toast” in a 1660 cookbook called The Accomplisht Cook. Written by somebody who was not an accomplisht speller, apparently. It’s called pain perdu in some parts of the world. Anybody who has ever watched Chopped has seen a struggling chef enter the dessert round and cheat his or her way out of it by making French toast and calling it pain perdu, but in France it actually IS considered a dessert, so I suppose we can let it slide. French toast, or whatever you call it, is easy to prepare: soak a couple of slices of bread (it can even be stale) in a mixture of beaten eggs and milk (or cream), fry on both sides until brown and cooked through, and top with maple syrup, confectioner’s sugar, or some other concoction of your choice. Wikipedia’s list of toppings includes Vegemite, ketchup, baked beans, cheese, cold cooked meats, and gravy. I think whoever wrote that was smoking crack.

To celebrate, we whipped up some French toast for breakfast. Because we don’t have enough cooking to do today! At least French toast is simple to make, and took the edge off our hunger.